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March 8 - April 21, 2023
The only way to ease our fear and be truly happy is to acknowledge our fear and look deeply at its source. Instead of trying to escape from our fear, we can invite it up to our awareness and look at it clearly and deeply.
To be mindful means to look deeply, to touch our true nature of interbeing and recognize that nothing is ever lost.
Fear keeps us focused on the past or worried about the future. If we can acknowledge our fear, we can realize that right now we are okay.
The first part of looking at our fear is just inviting it into our awareness without judgment. We just acknowledge gently that it is there. This brings a lot of relief already. Then, once our fear has calmed down, we can embrace it tenderly and look deeply into its roots, its sources.
We were born, and with that birth, our fear was born along with the desire to survive. This is original desire.
Practice: Talking to Your Inner Child Put down two cushions. First sit on one cushion and pretend you are the helpless, vulnerable child. You express yourself: “Dear one, I am very helpless. I cannot do anything. It’s very dangerous. I’m going to die; nobody is taking care of me.” You have to speak the language of the baby. And while you are expressing yourself like that, if the feelings of fear, hopelessness, stress, and helplessness come up, please allow them to come up and recognize them. Allow the helpless child enough time to express herself fully. This is very important. After she has
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Acknowledging and soothing the fear within is the first step in letting it go.
When we hear the bell, we practice breathing in and out mindfully, and we say, “I listen to the bell. This wonderful sound brings me back to my true home.” My true home is in the here and now. The past is not my true home.
When we recognize that we have a habit of replaying old events and reacting to new events as if they were the old ones, we can begin to notice when that habit energy comes up. We can then gently remind ourselves that we have another choice. We can look at the moment as it is, a fresh moment, and leave the past for a time when we can look at it compassionately.
Living mindfully in the present does not preclude making plans. It only means that you know there’s no use losing yourself in worries and fear concerning the future.
Unconditional acceptance is the first step in opening the door to the miracle of forgiveness.
The five remembrances are: 1. I am of the nature to grow old. I cannot escape growing old. 2. I am of the nature to have ill health. I cannot escape having ill health. 3. I am of the nature to die. I cannot escape death. 4. All that is dear to me, and everyone I love, are of the nature to change. There is no way to escape being separated from them. 5. I inherit the results of my acts of body, speech, and mind. My actions are my continuation.
If we practice and are able to release, we can be free and happy right now, today. If we can’t let go, we will suffer not only on the day when we’re finally forced to do so, but right now today and every day in between, because fear will be constantly stalking us.
The Buddha once told the monastics to look up at the sky at night to see the moon, and he asked them whether they saw how great the moon’s happiness was as it traveled in the vast open space. As practitioners we should allow ourselves to be as free as the moon.
Karma is the ground on which we stand. We have only one foundation, and that is our karma. We have no other ground. We will receive the fruits of any act we have done, whether wholesome or unwholesome.
Invite your fear into consciousness, and smile through it; every time you smile through your fear, it will lose some of its strength. If you try to run away from your pain, there is no way out. Only by looking deeply into the nature of your fear can you find the way out.
“My dear, I’m not afraid of you. I’m not afraid of my fear. It is my nature to grow old; I cannot escape old age.”
From that moment on, the idea that I had lost my mother no longer existed. All I had to do was look at the palm of my hand, or feel the breeze on my face or the earth under my feet, to remember that my mother is always with me, available at any time.
“It is possible to live happily in the present moment. It is the only moment we have.”
The Pure Land is in the present moment. The Pure Land is now or never.
Looking at the dimension of the wave, the historical dimension, we see that the wave seems to have a beginning and an end. The wave can be high or low compared to other waves. The wave might be more or less beautiful than other waves. The wave might be there or not there; it might be there now but not there later. All these notions are there when we first touch the historical dimension: birth and death, being and nonbeing, high and low, coming and going, and so on. But we know that when we touch the wave more deeply, we touch water. The water is the other dimension of the wave. It represents
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If the wave is capable of touching the water within herself, if the wave can live the life of water at the same time, then she will not be afraid of all these notions: beginning and ending, birth and death, being or nonbeing;
Her true nature is the nature of no-birth and no-death, no beginning and no end. That is the nature of water.
An ocean is not defined by its waves.
In the first step we accept that birth and death are happening, but in the second step, because we’re in touch with the ultimate dimension, we realize that birth and death come from our own conceptual minds and not from any true reality.
“Where does the wave come from, and where will it go?” And we can answer in the same manner, “The wave comes from water and will return to water.”
It is always water; coming and going are just mental constructions.
(Nothing is created, nothing is lost).
When conditions are sufficient, we manifest in a particular way. When conditions are no longer sufficient, we no longer manifest in that way. This doesn’t mean that we don’t exist.
when we look deeply into our self—into our body, our feelings, and our perceptions—when we look into the mountains, the rivers, or another person, we have to be able to see and touch the nature of no-birth and no-death in them.
When you drink your cup of tea with mindfulness and concentration, you understand that the cloud is right there in your tea, very close. You have never lost your beloved. She has just changed forms.
Everything is impermanent. This moment passes.
These eyes are not me. I am not caught in these eyes. This body is not me. I am not caught in this body. I am life without boundaries. The decaying of this body does not mean the end of me. I am not limited to this body.
Each of us is life without limit.
This body is not me. I am not caught in this body. I am life without limit. These eyes are not me. I am not caught in these eyes. These ears are not me. I am not caught in these ears. This nose is not me. I am not caught in this nose. This tongue is not me. I am not caught in this tongue. This body is not me. I am not caught in this body. This mind is not me. I am not caught in this mind.
These meditations are very comforting for an ill or dying person. These things I see are not me. I am not caught in what I see. These sounds are not me. I am not caught in these sounds. These smells are not me. I am not caught in these smells. These tastes are not me. I am not caught in these tastes. These contacts with the body are not me. I am not caught in these contacts with the body. These thoughts are not me. I am not caught in these thoughts.
meditation on time: The past is not me. I am not limited by the past. The present is not me. I am not limited by the present. The future is not me. I am not limited by the future.
